31 December 2018

Ten cathedrals I have
visited in 2018

The Blue Crucifix … an icon by Adrienne Lord in the north transept of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

In previous years, in my end-of-year reviews at the end of December, I have often summarised the year’s events in my life, as well providing my own commentary on the year in news, sport, and church life.

However, newspapers and television stations provide substantial summaries of the past year at this time of the year, and the consequences of ‘Brexit’ and the Trump presidency have been devastating and depressing at one and the same time throughout 2018.

Instead, I have decided to end the year on note of celebration over the next few days, looking back at ten countries I have visited this year, ten cathedrals I have visited in Ireland, ten synagogues I have visited across Europe, and ten places I have visited in Ireland this year.

During the year, as Precentor, I tried to visit each of the cathedrals and former cathedrals in this diocese: Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, Saint Flannan’s Killaloe, Co Clare, and Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert, Co Galway, as well as the former Saint Brendan’s Cathedral in Ardfert, Co Kerry, Saint Fachan’s Cathedral, Kilfenora, Co Clare, and the site of the former Saint Alibeus’s Cathedral in Emly, Co Tipperary.

I have presided at the Eucharist and preached in Saint Mary’s, Limerick, given a lecture on Prince Milo of Montenegro as part of the history programme marking the celebration of the cathedral’s 850th anniversary, and was invited to make a presentation to Stephen Cleobury after the concert in Saint Mary’s by the Choir of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.

Needless to say, as Precentor, I am not a visitor in a cathedral where I am the precentor. But I have visited at least ten other cathedrals in Ireland in the past 12 months.

The Malabar community from Kerala in India at a special ecumenical service in Saint John’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

1, Saint John’s Cathedral, Limerick:

As Ireland awaited the arrival of Pope Francis, I was invited to take part in a special service in Saint John’s Cathedral, Limerick, in August to mark the opening of the World Meeting of Families.

The service of Solemn Evening Prayer was entitled Le Chéile le Críost and was led by Bishop Brendan Leahy of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop Kenneth Kearon of the Church of Ireland. Other participants included the Dean of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the Very Revd Niall Sloane, who read the Epistle reading, the Methodist minister in Adare, the Revd Ruth Watt, who joined me in leading the intercessions, and members of the Italian, Spanish and Polish community.

We were led in and out of the cathedral by members of the Malabar community from Kerala in India, carrying colourful parasols.

Inside the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Ennis, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

2, The Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Ennis, Co Clare:

The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, at the junction of Station Road and O’Connell Street in Ennis, is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe. It was designed by the architect Dominick Madden, who had been disgraced earlier in his career, accused of stealing furniture from the Vice-Regal Lodge in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, but who had been commissioned the previous year to design the new cathedrals in Ballina, Co Mayo, and Tuam, Co Galway.

Madden’s designs display a very simple form of Gothic that shows little of the influence of AWN Pugin. The interior was completed under the supervision of JJ McCarthy in 1861. The arcades and piers, the panelled ceiling and the gallery at the west end are his work, as were the altars and the reredos.

For many years, this was officially a pro-cathedral for the Diocese of Killaloe, and it was not dedicated as a cathedral until 1990.

The Ascension depicted in the East Window in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

3, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh:

I was in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, during this year’s General Synod of the Church of Ireland, when I was one of the hosts for the ecumenical guests. After a long day in London at a meeting of the trustees of the Anglican mission agency, USPG (United Society, Partners in the Gospel), I travelled to Armagh for the opening of the General Synod on Ascension Day [10 May].

At the opening Eucharist, I appreciated that the East Window in the cathedral depicts the Ascension.

The ruins of Saint Mel’s Cathedral in Ardagh stand on a site said to date back to the fifth century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

4, The site of Saint Mel’s Cathedral, Ardagh, Co Longford:

On the way back from Wineport Lodge near Athlone, Co Westmeath, in August, I visited the village of Ardagh, Co Longford, between Longford town and Edgeworthstown.

The ruins of Saint Mel’s Cathedral in Ardagh mark one of the most important ecclesiastical sites in Co Longford. These ruins are to the south-east of Saint Patrick’s, the Church of Ireland parish church, in a corner of the graveyard beside the road. Tradition says Saint Patrick founded a church at Ardagh in the mid-fifth century, around 454, although there is no historical or archaeological evidence to support these legends, and Saint Mel is regarded as the founder of the Diocese of Ardagh.

Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, on the evening David McDonnell was installed as Dean of Ossory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

5, Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny:

I was in Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, at the end of August for the installation of the Very Revd David McDonnell as Dean of Ossory, in succession to Katharine Poulton.

It was good to meet so many friends, colleagues and former students, and because I stayed overnight in Kilkenny, there was extra time to enjoy what I still regards as the most beautiful and interesting city in Ireland.

The deans of this cathedral in the 16th century included Edmund Comerford, who was also Bishop of Ferns, and his son William Comerford. Sometimes, someone who knows me only too well, says that at times she has to peel me out of Kilkenny if I am going to leave.

Inside Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford, designed by John Roberts and built in 1773-1779 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

6, Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford:

Waterford is unique as an Irish city, not in having two cathedrals, but in having two cathedrals, one Anglican and one Roman Catholic, with the same formal dedication and designed by the same architect. On my way to Kilkenny last Thursday [30 August 2018], I stopped in Waterford to visit both cathedrals.

Both the Church of Ireland cathedral on Cathedral Square – Christ Church Cathedral, or more formally, the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, and the Roman Catholic cathedral on Barronstrand Street – Holy Trinity Cathedral, were designed in the neoclassical style by John Roberts (1712-1796), whose imagination gave shape to much of Georgian Waterford, and I visited both cathedrals on my way from Askeaton to Kilkenny for the installation of Dean David McDonnell.

During the demolition of the earlier cathedral, the mediaeval vestments missing since Patrick Comerford, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, left for France in 1651, were found in the crypt. In a gesture of ecumenical goodwill centuries before ecumenism became standard practice, they were presented by Bishop Richard Chenevix to his Roman Catholic counterpart, Bishop Peter Creagh, and they are now kept in the Museum of Treasures in Waterford and the National Museum in Dublin.

Inside Holy Trinity Cathedral, Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

7, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Waterford:

The Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity on Barronstrand Street, Waterford, was also designed by John Roberts (1714-1796), the great architect of Georgian Waterford, and is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in Ireland. Both cathedrals are part of the Georgian glory of Waterford, and Holy Trinity Cathedral is an important landmark on Barronstrand Street in the heart of the city.

John Roberts had built Christ Church Cathedral, the new Anglican cathedral on the site of Waterford’s mediaeval Gothic cathedral, in 1773, and this was finally completed in 1792. A year later, in 1793, Roberts was invited to build a new Roman Catholic cathedral on the site of the old Penal chapel and an adjoining plot of land on Barronstrand Street provided by the city corporation.

The cathedral was built in 1793-1796, making it Ireland’s oldest Roman Catholic cathedral. It was built while William Egan was Bishop of Waterford and Lismore (1775-1796) at a total cost of £20,000.

The Cathedral of the Assumption in Thurles, Co Tipperary, was designed by JJ McCarthy and built in 1865-1879 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

8, The Cathedral of the Assumption, Thurles, Co Tipperary:

During one of my day-trips from Askeaton this year using publish transport, I visited Thurles, Co Tipperary, and the Cathedral of the Assumption, the Roman Catholic cathedral for Cashel, in July. This striking cathedral is unusual for its style and stands on the site of earlier chapels that at one time were the only Roman Catholic churches in Thurles.

The cathedral forms part of a group the other church buildings on Cathedral Street, including the Bishop’s Palace, the former seminary at Saint Patrick’s College, the presbytery and the neighbouring convents.

The style of this cathedral is informed by North Italian Romanesque architecture, and both the façade and the Baptistry are modelled on those at the cathedral in Pisa. The exterior was designed by the architect James Joseph McCarthy (1817-1882), who claimed the mantle of AWN Pugin.

The Cathedral of Christ the King in Mullingar, Co Westmeath … a landmark building in the Irish Midlands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

9, The Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar, Co Westmeath:

The Cathedral of Christ the King in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, is a landmark building in the Irish Midlands. The campanile towers and the dome dominate the skyline and approaches to Mullingar, and the silhouette of the cathedral has become a symbol of Mullingar. This is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Meath and it towers above the centre of the town.

Mullingar Cathedral is yet another statement by the Dublin-based architect Ralph Byrne of the confidence of Roman Catholicism in post-independence Ireland in the 1920s and 1930s, like his cathedral in Cavan and his strong emphatic churches in Athlone, Co Westmeath, and Harold’s Cross, Dublin.

I visited Mullingar Cathedral while I was staying at Wineport Lodge near Athlone in August. The cathedral was formally opened and dedicated on 6 September 1936, when, at the request of Pope Pius XI, it became the first cathedral in the world to be dedicated to Christ the King.

The works of art for which Mullingar Cathedral is most noted are the mosaics in the chapels of Saint Anne and Saint Patrick. These are the work of the Russian-born mosaic artist Boris Anrep, a celebrated artist and socialite, best known for his monumental mosaics at the National Gallery, Westminster Cathedral, and the Bank of England in London.

Visitors lost in the new labyrinth in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

10, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin:

For many years I was not a visitor to Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, for I was a canon and a member of the chapter until I moved to Askeaton last year. But I visited the cathedral last week to see the new stone labyrinth in the redesigned grounds of the cathedral. Funding from Dublin City Council and Fáilte Ireland enabled the redesign and landscaping of the grounds.

Inside the cathedral, I also saw the heart of Saint Laurence O’Toole, which went on public display last month [14 November] following an ecumenical service of dedication and thanksgiving to mark the return of the heart of the city’s patron saint.

The saint’s heart was stolen from the cathedral in March 2012, but following a long-running police investigation, the heart was recovered earlier this year by the gardai after a six-year absence. The heart is now housed in the north transept in a specially designed art piece crafted by the Cork-based artist Eoin Turner.

I could have looked at the many cathedrals I have visited in England this year, including Lichfield, Birmingham and Westminster, or looked at ten cathedrals I have visited across Europe this year, including cathedral in Berlin, Seville, Venice, Torcello, Chania, Rethymnon, Thessaloniki, Perpignan, Elne and Gorizia. But this is just a taste of some of the cathedral I have visited this year.

This evening: Ten synagogues I visited in 2018.

Ten places I visited
in Ireland in 2018

Sunset on an early summer evening on the River Deel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018; click on images for full-screen views)

Patrick Comerford

Moving to Askeaton and the Rathkeale Group of Parishes two years ago has opened up a new part of Ireland to me, and has brought me closer to parts of Ireland that might have more difficult to visit otherwise.

In previous years, in my end-of-year reviews at the end of December, I have often summarised the year’s events in my life, as well providing my own commentary on the year in news, sport, and church life.

However, newspapers and television stations provide substantial summaries of the past year at this time of the year, and the consequences of ‘Brexit’ and the Trump presidency have been devastating and depressing at one and the same time throughout 2018.

Instead, I have decided to end the year on note of celebration over the next few days, looking back at ten countries I have visited this year, ten cathedrals I have visited in Ireland, ten synagogues I have visited across Europe, and ten places I have visited in Ireland this year.

Earlier today, I was looking back at ten countries I have visited this year. But this evening I want to look back at ten places I have visited in Ireland this years.

Walking the long sandy beach at Ballinskelligs in April (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018; click on images for full-screen views)

1, Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry:

When the Easter Vestry meetings were over, I took a day or two off in Ballinskelligs (Baile ’n Sceilg) in south-west Kerry and returned to the small village of Dungeagan, where I stayed in Tig an Rince.

Over half a century ago, when I was in my teens in 1966, I had spent a month in Ballinskelligs at the Irish College, in a desperate attempt by my parents to ensure I did not fail Irish in my school exams. In April this year, I found the house I had stayed in over 50 years, walked the long sandy beach, and rekindled many happy memories.

Valentia Island seen from Renard Point, the seaport in Valentia Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

2, Valentia Island, Co Kerry:

That visit to Ballinkelligs also brought me to Glenbeagh, Caherciveen, Waterville and Killroglin, around the Ring of Kerry, allowed me to see the Skelligs Rocks, invited me to visit a chocolate factory for the first time, and brought me back to Valentia Island.

The Church of Ireland parish church in Knighstown, the Church Saint John the Baptist, is one of the last churches designed by Joseph Welland (1798-1860). A sign claims that this church is the ‘most westerly Protestant church in Europe.’

Evening lights by the shores of the River Shannon and Lough Ree at Wineport Lodge near Athlone, Co Westmeath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

3, Wineport Lodge, Co Westmeath:

A retirement gift from colleagues at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute allowed two of to stay at the Wineport Lodge in Co Westmeath.

It was a culinary experience, and opportunity to enjoy being by the shores of Lough Ree and on the banks of the River Shannon. During that stay we also visited Athlone, Mullingar and Ardagh.

The former Binchy shop on Main Street, Charleville … the birthplace of Irish diplomat Daniel Binchy (Photograph Patrick Comerford, 2018)

4, Charleville, Co Cork:

Because I passed a certain age earlier this year, I now have free use of public transport in Ireland. Occasionally, on a day off in the middle of Ireland, I have decided to hop on a train or a bus and visit a town that I might not otherwise have visited, and explore its streets, its architecture and its history.

An example of one of those short day-trips is Charleville, Co Cork. But the surprising and unexpected story was the story of Daniel A Binchy, the first Irish Minister or ambassador to Germany from 1929 to 1932. His reports to Dublin were sharp and prescient. He predicted the consequences of the failure of the democratic parties to work together and had no illusions about the brutality, cynicism, anti-Semitism and murderous racism of Hitler’s new regime.

In his assessment of Hitler, Binchy refers to his ‘fanatical belief’ and writes, ‘there are only two barriers to megalomania in public life: intelligence and a sense of humour. Either of these qualities would suffice to prevent it, but I believe Hitler to be lacking in both.’

Perhaps today we need someone with his perceptive insights to warn us of the dangers of born natural orators, who rehearse their gestures and gesticulations before speaking, who seek to blame all their nation’s woes on identifiable but marginalised groups, and who promise to make their nation great again. As Binchy’s friend warned him almost a century ago, ‘No lunatic with the gift of oratory is harmless.’

Inside Comerford’s Bar in Doobeg, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

5, Doonbeg, Co Clare:

I got to see not just one but two Saint Patrick’s Day parades this year: one on Saint Patrick’s Day itself, when I was invited onto the reviewing platform in Askeaton, and the second in Doonbeg, Co Clare, the next afternoon.

Two of us had crossed the Shannon Estuary on the ferry from Tarbert, Co Kerry, to Kilimer, Co Clare, and drove out on to Doonbeg on the west coast of Co Clare. Doonbeg has beautiful beaches and is known for its surfing.

Initially, we thought we might look for the Trump Golf resort, hoping against hope that he would never visit the area and that we would not need to familiarise ourselves with the Trump properties in preparation for any future protests. But, if Trump delivers on his commitment to Leo Varadkar in the White House to visit his property in Doonbeg next year, then it is important to know where the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel are.

We were in search of lunch, but nothing could entice me to explore the possibility of lunch in a Trump Hotel … no matter what the food is like, or how enticing the menu might be, nothing could entice me to add to that man’s wealth or boost his profits, no matter how meagre my contribution might be.

Instead, we visited Comerford’s Bar in Doonbeg, which dates from 1848, according to signs in the pub, although it has its origins from earlier in the previous decade. This branch of the Comerford family of Doonbeg is said to have originated at Clare Cottage, once known as Comerford Lodge, a pre-famine thatched cottage in Spanish Point. In 1839, George Comerford, originally from Spanish Point, married Lucy Burns, whose family owned the pub in Doonbeg.

It was easier to indulge in a little but of family history with the Comerfords than to think about the end of history brought about by Trump. The irony is that despite continuing to deny climate change, that man wants the Irish taxpayers to fund shoring up the sand-dunes that have been damaged by climate change and to protect his golf links from coastal erosion.

The fading front of a once-colourful pub is a reminder of days gone by in Thurles (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

6, Thurles, Co Tipperary:

I hopped a train in Limerick early one morning for a day-trip to Thurles, Co Tipperary, which had once been a stopover in my childhood days during journeys between Dublin and Cappoquin, Co Waterford.

In Thurles, I visited the Cathedral of the Assumption, which is JJ McCarthy’s only Romanesque-style cathedral, Saint Mary’s, the Church of Ireland parish church, Saint Patrick’s College, which Newman had visions of turning into the Oxford of Ireland but which is now part of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, and searched for castle ruins.

Two sides of the cloisters survive in the ruins of the Franciscan Friary in Ennis, Co Clare, (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

7, Ennis, Co Clare:

Ennis, which has been voted the ‘Friendliest Town in Ireland,’ is another town I visited on one of these short, one-day journeys from Askeaton by bus and train. It was a rainy day, but I visited the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Saint Columba’s Church, Drumcliffe, said to be the last church in the Church of Ireland built before disestablishment, and the ruins of the Franciscan Friary with its restored royal MacMahon tomb.

As teenagers in Ballinskelligs, two of the Irish dances they tried to teach us were the known as the Walls of Limerick and the Siege of Ennis. The Walls of Limerick have all but disappeared as a site in Limerick, but there was never an incident in history known as the Siege of Ennis, and so it is known – in jest – as the ‘Siege of Venice’ … or even, at times, as the ‘Sea of Guinness.’

The Morris House on Great George’s Street housed the offices of the Waterford Chamber of Commerce and the Port of Waterford Company for the best part of two centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

8, Waterford City:

One of my longer journeys from Limerick was by train to Waterford City. This took a little more planning, as I have learned to dread the prospect of either missing a train connection at Limerick Junction, or being stuck in the wilderness at Limerick Junction for too long, without any chance to buy a coffee.

When I was a child in Cappoquin, Waterford was a big city, and the large towns we tended to find ourselves in included Thurles and Dungarvan. Waterford was an excursion, and it an exciting place to visit, with Reginald’s Tower and the Clock Tower as the two most noticeable landmarks on the Quays.

I had breakfast before visiting the two cathedrals, strolling through the narrow streets that September day, and noticing the passing of some familiar landmarks, including Doolan’s on Great George’s Street, once a picture postcard image of Waterford.

The Romanesque doorway at Saint Cronan’s Church, Roscrea, Co Tipperary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

9, Roscrea, Co Tipperary:

Roscrea, Co Tipperary, is another town in this region that is accessible on a day-trip from Askeaton by public transport. In September I visited the town with its ancient monastic site, round tower, Romanesque doorway and high cross beside Saint Cronan’s, the Church of Ireland parish church, Roscrea Castle and Damer House, the ruins of the Franciscan Friary and Saint Cronan’s Roman Catholic parish church, the Methodist Church on the Mall, and Mount Saint Joseph Abbey, the Cistercian abbey and school on the edges of the town.

Autumn colours in Adare, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

10, Adare, Co Limerick:

Although I am now living in Askeaton, I have stayed overnight in two other places in Co Limerick this year: the Dunraven Arms Hotel in Adare, which was the venue for this year’s clergy conference for the Diocese of Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert and the Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry; Glenstal Abbey, where I stayed for a 24-hour retreat in July.

I also spent time in Limerick city itself and time exploring neighbouring towns and villages in the country, including finding the ruined church in Ballycahane – although Ballycahane is in the Adare group of parishes, as Precentor of Limerick I am also (nominally) the Prebendary of Ballycahane.

My choice of ten places in Ireland has been random. I could have chosen ten beach walks, ten river-side walks, or ten boat trips: on the Lakes of Killarney; from Tarbert to Killimer; along the River Deel from Askeaton to the mouth of the River Shannon; from Tarifa to Tangier through the Pillars of Hercules; along the Grand Canal in Venice; from Venice to Torcello; from Venice to Murano and Burano …

But, whatever my choices might have been, it has been a good year this year.

The gate leading from the Lady Garden to the Monastic Graveyard at Glenstal Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Tomorrow: Ten cathedrals.